With just the one day left to explore
round the Animal Encounters section, my last day always a special one. For working hard I was treated to enjoying a couple of encounter experiences. The first was with the Asian Elephants, Elephas maximus. These large but quite elegant animals live together in a herd of four, consisting of three adult females and a calf, named Tarli, who is nearly four years old. The park also has an adult bull, called Raja who is kept separate from the rest of the heard the majority of the time, as in the wild males often live alone away from all female herds. Luckily for me, as I was completing work experience the encounter came with the unique opportunity to learn a little bit more about the elephants and chat with the keepers.
Easily distinguished from the African elephant, Loxodonta africana, due to their smaller rounder ears, the Asian elephant is a large herbivore species. However a second distinguishing feature can be seen at the end of their trunks. Here they posses an almost finger like structure, used to grab objects. The African elephant comparatively has two of these structures. The ability to grab objects is key for feeding of shrubbery, whilst the trunk it’s self, despite having many functions is especially useful for cooling down. This is as it can suck up water to spray the elephants entire body. Radiation from the ears is also cooling. Despite being such magnificent animals the species is currently endangered, with populations decreasing rapidly. This is mainly for ivory, despite most females and many males not actually having tusks.
In the afternoon I got to go and feed the penguins, learning about some of the individuals. The parks penguins species, the Humboldt Penguin, Spheniscus humboldti is endangered, but with many young penguins the park is now planning the distribution of many of the group to other collections. By doing this, these younger penguins can go on to produce successful offspring and aid the survival of the species. When getting up close to the penguins it is immediately obvious that there are a number of feeing behaviours. Some of those most confident will eagerly attempt to eat every fish leaving the bucket, even climbing on your feet to get them. However once a fish has entered their mouth it is not certain it will be eaten, with a large percentage of the fish being dropped on the floor. Other penguins preferred to accept their food from a distance and catch it, rather than being hand fed. Similarly others preferred to take fish that had been thrown in the water.
Out of these, feeding in the water of course seems most natural. However this is not necessary the case. With many of the penguins currently molting at the park, they are unable to swim. In the wild this creates fasting periods, however with food arriving daily in zoo’s this is not required. A final behavior, was that some penguins stayed on the bank. The explanation for this seems clearer as this is where the nests are located. With two chicks hidden in the nests they must also be fed. This is done by the parents. They achieve this as the birds have a two chambered stomach, with one chamber, the proventriculus, predominantly used as a store. The fish stored can then be fed directly to the chicks when needed.
Throughout the last day I was allowed to pick the sections I wanted to work on, so naturally I chose a few of my favourites, including the Lemurs. However as I loved so many of the animals I also when the for those I had not worked with for a while such as the Red Panda and Aldabra Tortoises which in the current heat love nothing more than a shower under the hose. It was an amazing experience, that really allowed me to start looking at and understanding some animal behaviours up close. The experience is also great for anyone wanting to get in to animal husbandry.
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